Volvo Trucks campaign receives one of the advertising world’s most prestigious awards

In the highly regarded ad competition The One Show, Volvo Trucks’ campaign for its new range not only received an impressive nine awards – The Epic Split also earned one of the most sought-after prizes in advertising – Best in Show.

Volvo Trucks' Live Test online ad campaign swept The One Show, a top-ranked awards ceremony for advertising held in New York, winning nine ‘Pencil' awards including six golds. The Epic Split even won the prestigious Best in Show prize against 21,000 entries submitted from around the world.

The Live Test campaign features six videos that demonstrate innovative features in Volvo Trucks' new truck series in a variety of spectacular ways. All told these films have been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube.

"The One Show's awards are among the highest honours in advertising. It feels especially rewarding that a B2B campaign continues to win advertising prizes in one competition after another," says Per Nilsson, Director Public Relations at Volvo Trucks.

In addition to Best in Show, Volvo Trucks also took home the award for Client of the Year. The campaign won gold awards in the Interactive, Branded Entertainment and Advertising categories. Most of the awards were for The Epic Split, the viral video where Jean-Claude Van Damme does the splits between two new Volvo FM trucks driven in reverse. The Live Test Campaign also received a Gold Pencil for the best consumer campaign in the advertising category.

"Our surveys show that almost half the truck buyers who have seen the live test films indicate they would be more likely to choose a Volvo the next time they buy a new truck. For us this is another strong sign that the campaign has been successful," says Per Nilsson.

The awards ceremony for The One Show was held on Friday, May 9th at the Lincoln Center in New York. On May 1st the campaign won eighteen awards in the New York Festival ad competition, including Global Brand of the Year and Best in Show. A few weeks earlier Volvo Trucks took home three Golden Egg awards at the Golden Egg gala, a top Swedish advertising competition. The campaign also earned the sought-after Black Cube award and Client of the Year at the ADC awards, another prestigious global ad competition.

Facts about the launch campaign

-In total, six live test films were released as part of the campaign, in the following sequence: The Ballerina Stunt, The Technician, The Hook, The Hamster Stunt, The Chase and The Epic Split.-The videos demonstrate the innovative features of the new truck series in a spectacular way. -The videos have only been released on YouTube.

The ad campaign's reach

From June 2012 to May 2014: - The number of followers on Facebook has increased from 16,000 to 362,000. - The number of followers on Twitter has increased from 6,000 to 19,000.- On YouTube, the number of subscribers has increased from 3,500 to 92,000. - The number of unique visits to Volvo Trucks' websites in Europe has doubled from just over 175,000 to more than 300,000 per month. - The videos have more than 100 million views on YouTube and have been shared nearly 8 million times. - There have been over 20,000 reports about the videos in the media worldwide. - It is estimated that this degree of publicity represents 126 million euros (172.6 million USD) in earned media value. - When surveyed, almost half the truck buyers who have seen the launch videos say it is now more likely that they will choose Volvo the next time they purchase a truck.

Facts about The Epic Split- The Epic Split was released in November 2013 and is the video in Volvo Trucks' launch campaign that has had the greatest impact.- After just 48 hours the video had 10 million views on YouTube.- Today it is the most watched automotive ad ever on YouTube, with more than 72 million views.- The day after its release The Epic Split was the most shared video in the world.- The video took sixth place in YouTube's annual list,‘Top Ten Trending Videos of 2013'.- The video has been shown at Musée de la Publicité at Palais du Louvre in Paris.

About The One Show

Awarded annually by the non-profit organisation The One Club for Art and Copy, known as The One Club, The One Show awards the strongest achievements across five categories: Advertising, Design, Branded Entertainment, Interactive and Intellectual Property. The winners at this year's The One Show awards were gleaned from over 21,0000 submissions from all over the world. The One Show honours are known as Pencils on account of their shape. Read more about the awards on The One Show here.